1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of toys animated by energy-storing mechanisms. More specifically the present invention relates to a toy including several separably interconnected figure elements defining a composite structure, each figure element including a spring-loaded, directionally selectable propulsion mechanism. The figure element includes a element shell including a shell interconnection portion having a shell interconnection structure and a shell propulsion portion having the propulsion mechanism.
Each propulsion mechanism includes a coil spring secured at a spring base end to the element shell and secured at a spring free end to a projection member. The projection member has an outwardly extending contact end and an inwardly directed stop end and has a circumferential shoulder between the contact end and the stop end. The projection member protrudes between opposing and spaced apart shoulder engaging structures in the shell propulsion portion, so that pressing the projection member toward the element shell against the biasing of the spring and then tilting the projection member laterally to a certain angle causes the shoulder to move underneath a shoulder engaging structure, and so that reducing pressure against the projection member and spring causes the shoulder to move against and into engaging contact with the shoulder engaging structure. As a result of this construction, an impact of the projection member with another object such as the floor, another toy or an element of the same toy, dislodges the shoulder from the shoulder engaging structure, freeing the projection member to accelerate outwardly under the power of the coil spring at substantially the selected angle of projection member tilt. The outwardly accelerating projection member rapidly bears against the triggering object and causes an entertaining movement of the toy.
The element shell may take any of several forms. The contact end is preferably fitted with a resilient ball defining the head of a figure. The interconnection portion preferably includes a spherical cover which may be painted or otherwise with the impression of a face, so that the figure elements appear to be interconnected characters. The figure element may have the appearance of a person or animal figure. Fabric wings may be attached to and extend laterally from the ball head of the figure to render the appearance of wings flopping during bounce. Accessories such as pneumatic reed sound devices can also be attached (or designed to be internally housed) to create sounds when the composite structure is bounced.
The composite structure optionally includes six interconnected figure elements joined together in such a way that their six above-described propulsion mechanisms are equally spaced and uniformly distributed, the directly opposing figure elements each defining one of three mutually perpendicular and intersecting axes. Varying numbers of structure elements may be interconnected in different ways to produce a variety of composite structure configurations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been toys propelled by energy stored in internal springs and there have been toy balls constructed with means for random and unpredictable bouncing movements.
Hanshaw, U.S. Pat. No. 2,078,382, issued on Apr. 27, 1937, discloses a playing ball made of a resilient material such as rubber. Intersecting bands or spaced apart bumps made of the same resilient material protrude from the ball spherical surface and cause the ball to bounce at unpredictable angles upon impacting a play surface. The bands or bumps are spaced apart sufficiently that the even ball spherical surface occasionally and randomly strikes the play surface to rebound at a conventional angle approximating the angle of approach. A problem with Hanshaw is that the ball has no stored energy beyond that imparted to it from the force of a throw and from gravity, so that rebound velocity diminishes rapidly. Another problem is that the user has no control over rebound angles, limiting user involvement, variations in ball use and user interest.
Kulesza, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,214, issued on Aug. 21, 1984, teaches an impact-responsive toy vehicle. Kulesza, et al. includes a conventional toy vehicle with a vehicle body and vehicle wheels, with a spring-biased foot portion mounted underneath the vehicle floor and a foot portion triggering mechanism. The triggering mechanism includes a generally rectangular latching member which is mounted to slide parallel to the vehicle floor, the forward end of the latching member forming the vehicle front bumper and a rearward section fitting underneath the foot portion. When the toy vehicle is propelled forwardly on its wheels and strikes an obstacle, the impact depresses the front bumper, sliding the latching member rearwardly relative to the foot portion. The displacement of the latching member frees the foot portion to pivot with the force of the biasing spring and rapidly accelerate against the vehicle support surface, flipping the vehicle over to simulate a spectacular crash. Problems with Kulesza, et al. are that the user has no control over foot propulsion direction, and only one propulsion mechanism is provided so that a sequence of bouncing actions is not produced.
Simone, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,618,219, issued on Apr. 8, 1997, reveals a remote control toy vehicle with a powered jumper mechanism similar to that of Kulesza, et al. The only fundamental differences are that the foot member is cam-shaped rather than planar and is actuated by an electric motor rather than by spring release.
Weiss, U.S. Pat. No. 2,627,700, issued on Feb. 10, 1953, discloses a jumping puppet apparatus. The apparatus includes a miniature model human torso and a flexible skirt portion extending downwardly from the torso to puppet-supporting, interconnected puppet feet. A coil spring is mounted within a longitudinal tube extending into the base of the torso, and a radial flange extends inwardly from the perimeter of the downwardly directed tube opening. The spring bears against a piston, and a drive rod having a rod shoulder interconnects the piston and the puppet feet. To cock the jumping mechanism, the user presses the puppet feet toward the torso against the biasing of the coil spring until the rod shoulder passes the radial flange. Then the rod is slightly pivoted laterally and pressure against the spring is eased to cause the rod shoulder to bear against the radial flange. Dropping the upright puppet vertically causes the feet to strike a play surface, jar the rod and dislodge the shoulder from the radial flange. The coil spring then propels the drive rod and puppet feet downwardly against the play surface and causes the puppet to jump. A problem with Weiss is that the lateral positioning of the drive rod to cause the shoulder to engage the radial flange is very slight, and does not materially alter or control the puppet jumping direction. Another problem is that only one propulsion mechanism is provided, and thus no entertaining sequence of jumps is disclosed. Still another problem is that the spring does not overlap or enter the piston, so that the propulsion mechanism bore must be quite deep.
Maxim, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,981, issued on Mar. 29, 1994, teaches a self-propelled bouncing ball. This ball includes an outer spherical shell containing a motorized center of gravity shifting mechanism, rotating an internal weight around a diametric internal mounting shaft. While this ball produces a random and generally unpredictable bouncing motion, the cost of its manufacture with the internal mechanism limits the product to a relatively high-end market. The rotating weight also provides for no user pre-selection of bounce directions.
Sonesson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,428, issued on May 15, 1990, reveals a ball with an unbalance mechanism. Sonesson includes a ball having a diametric internal bore lined with a guide tube containing a sliding piston weight. The weight includes a spring-powered mechanism which slides the piston weight from one end of the guide tube to the other end as the ball rolls, shifting the ball center of gravity and producing an irregular rolling pattern. A problem with Sonesson is that the user cannot select and pre-set rolling directions. Another problem is that the shifting of the center of gravity does not release stored ball propelling energy to the ball as it moves, limiting the play time for each roll. Still another problem is that no entertaining jumping action is produced.
Lacey, U.S. Pat. No. 3,106,397, issued on Oct. 8, 1963, discloses a ball toy having spring-loaded propulsion mechanisms projecting from discrete points over the ball exterior surface. The ball is essentially a solid spherical body and each propulsion mechanism includes a radial bore in the body containing a coil spring. Each bore has a circumferential internal latching groove. A hollow cylindrical piston with a laterally extending latching structure is slidably fitted into each bore against the biasing of the coil spring. The latching structure is connected to a triggering pin protruding outwardly through the piston, and engages the latching groove. When the ball is dropped and one of the propulsion mechanism pins strikes the ground, the impact dislodges the latching structure from the groove and thereby releases the piston to slide within the bore. The coil spring drives the piston rapidly outward to strike the ground and propel the ball away from the ground, so that upon landing again, another propulsion mechanism pin may be struck, producing a series of bounces or jumps. A problem with Lacey is that the user cannot select and pre-set the directions of ball propulsion.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a toy with several propulsion mechanisms, each of which stores energy independently for sequential propulsion of the toy or a part of the toy.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a toy which is a composite structure made up of several removably interconnected elements which may be configured as people, animals or various inanimate, each element having its own separate propulsion mechanism and being separable from the composite structure for independent use.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a toy in which each propulsion mechanism propels the toy in a selected and approximately pre-set individual direction, does not require a deep bore or recess and is compact.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a toy which prolongs bouncing action by releasing energy which is stored prior to bouncing sequence initiation.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a toy which is economical to manufacture, simple, sturdy and genuinely intriguing for children and adults alike.
The present invention accomplishes the above-stated objectives, as well as others, as may be determined by a fair reading and interpretation of the entire specification.
A toy is provided for entertaining a user, including a composite structure configured to execute a play function, the composite structure including several removably interconnected structure elements, each said structure element having at least one propulsion mechanism including a spring-loaded, directionally selectable propulsion member connected to the structure element.
The structure elements preferably each include an element shell, and the at least one propulsion mechanism preferably includes one of the projection members, a coil spring having a compressed mode and a relaxed mode and having a spring base end and a spring free end, the spring base end being connected to the element shell and the spring free end being connected to the projection member, a structure for retaining the spring in a compressed mode and angled to a selected direction, and a structure for releasing the spring from the compressed mode upon impact of the projection member with a triggering object to propel the element shell together with the entire composite structure and the triggering object apart from each other. The at least one projection member preferably includes an outwardly extending contact end and an inwardly directed stop end, where the structure for retaining the spring and the structure for releasing the spring include a circumferential shoulder between the contact end and the stop end, and where the projection member protrudes outwardly from the element shell between opposing and spaced apart shoulder engaging structure portions, so that pressing the projection member toward the element shell against the biasing of the spring and then tilting the projection member laterally to a certain angle in the selected direction causes the shoulder to move underneath one of the shoulder engaging structure portions, and so that subsequently reducing pressing force against the projection member causes the shoulder to move against and into engaging contact with the shoulder engaging structure portion, and so that impact of the projection member with the triggering object dislodges the shoulder from the shoulder engaging structure portion, thereby freeing the projection member to accelerate outwardly with the force of the coil spring against the triggering object.
It is preferred that the projection member is a projection cup member having a substantially circular cup end wall and a tubular cup side wall, and that the shoulder is circumferential along the cup side wall, and that the spring base end is anchored within a recess in the element shell, and the spring is longer in the relaxed mode than the projection cup member and extends into the cup member, the spring free end being connected to the cup end wall, and that the shoulder engagement structure includes a lip protruding radially inwardly around the outer end of the recess.
The recess preferably includes a recess cup member fitted into a recess receiving port in the element shell and having a circular recess bottom wall and a tubular recess side wall and includes an outwardly bent shell engaging rim which engages the edge of the recess receiving port.
The triggering object is optionally a play surface and the element shell optionally includes a representation of a human or animal face. The composite structure has at least two of the structure elements, each structure element having a propulsion mechanism so that several propulsion mechanisms are distributed over the outer extremities of the composite structure for depressing and tilting by the user in individually selected directions into engagement with the shoulder engaging structure, so that projecting the composite structure against the play surface causes at least one of the projection members to contact the play surface and release the at least one projection member from engagement with its shoulder engaging structure, and so that the at least one projection member springs outwardly and delivers a propulsion member force against the play surface in a direction corresponding to the direction in which the projection member was tilted and the force combines with and alters the existing directional momentum of the composite structure.